


Vox

by orphan_account



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: Gen, Gift Work, Illnesses, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7779457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A kitsune , or fox woman crosses the border between the supernatural and mortal realm against the taboos of her people, and in so doing accidentally causes the object of her affection to come down with a mysterious possibly contagious flu-like symptoms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vox

Disclaimer: Yoriden Samurai Troopers belongs to its creators and producers, note I am familiar with the US  
English-dubbed version of the show and the characters. The kitsune here is my own take. The title comes from the Sarah McLaclan song by the same name.

 

"Vox" by 

It was late in the day but Kento if there was one thing Kento hated more than doing chores it was getting a lecture from his friends and or Mia about shirking them or worse leaving them unfinished. 

Truth be told, chopping firewood in anticipation of a cold winter was one of his more enjoyable chores; it meant a task in which he could use his very strong and capable body while leaving his mind free to roam. 

It had been several months since they'd defeated Talpa and all of them from Ryuu on down were slowly recovering from that ordeal and learning to readjust to living in the mundane world. 

Kento had just about finished the stack of wood he had already piled up and was in the processing removing the gloves from his hands when a movement caught his attention.

It was only a slight movement, however, it did cause the slender trees at the edge of the property to rustle ever so slightly. He slitted his eyes, it might have just been an animal, albeit a rather large one, but it hardly made a sound on the carpeting of snow on the ground. 

It bobbed and weaved in an out of the trees, then begun to tenatively approach the man-made dwellings as if it were looking for something.

Whatever the creature was, and Kento could not decide from where he stood, he decided that this was worth investigating further. It could be a harmless mundane animal, but then again, it might not. 

The Ancient, who had taught them so much about their destiny and their powers had often invoked the saying that one must always trust one's instincts. Kento felt that he had heard so many times that he should have it tattooed on his arm.

So his instincts, told him: 'this is worth checking out, and there's no time to alert the others' With that Kento put thought into action and cautiously approached the creature, cat, or whatever it was.

Kento set the axe down on the now empty work bench beside his stack on the work bench and began to make a cautious approach.

When he reached the tree line he realized with a start that the creature was bigger than he had initially thought, almost a meter tall when it stood on its hind-legs and had tawny red-orange hair on it fore-arms and legs, but blue-black hair that spilled down its back.

"Oh boy, this is not a mundane animal,' Kento thought. "It almost looks more like a fox than a cat.. I wonder what it's doing here.'

Then it locked almond-shaped blue eyes with his own and there was an intelligence in those eyes and an unspoken message that Kento had to hear. 

It took a few hestiant steps forward and then a few more; finally it placed a very human-looking hand on Kento's chest.

Kento felt a jolt of connection so sudden that he was forced to rock back on his heels and the movement startled the creature and it whirled away, but not before it stole one last lingering glance at him.

If there were indeed a message it remained unspoken for the cat-fox creature whirled and ran away.

When the fox-creature was finally out of sight Kento blew on his fingers that were now cold with more the chill winter wind, "What was that all about?"

Since the answer to that question was not immediately forthcoming Kento figured he'd best get back to the house. But as he walking back he chanced to look down at the ground and saw tracks in the snow.  
***

"How I could I possibly come down with the flu? Kento complained as he staggered into the living area of Mia's parent's house. 'I achoo, achoo, hardly ever get sick.

"If that's what it is?"Mia remarked. "It simply might be a case of overtaxing your system and this is your body's way of compensating for it."

"Don't be absurd! I'm as healthy as a horse!" Kento insisted even as he attempted the process of carefully navigating the spiral steps from that connected the upper floor from the lower and toward the couch and from there gaining access to the TV remote. 

Under normal circumstances this would not have presented a problem> At the moment, however, he was suffering from blurry vision and a pounding head.  
For some reason Mia's voices echoed hollowly inside his eardrums. 

"Everyone, Shoo. I've got this," Mia exclaimed.

"Are you sure it isn't contagious?" asked Ryuu.

"No, I don't believe so," Mia replied, "but I think it would be best to not to borrow trouble."

Sage looked dubious but consented, Rowen figured that the best way that he could help was take let Mia take the hands-on approach in treating Kento and he would go and research Kento's symptoms on-line or in one of medical books in the library.

 

****  
A day or two later when Mia was taking a break from tending to Kento whose symptoms had been down-graded to not out-of the woods but still requiring rest in case his fever returned more vigorously in the night, Rowen came down to the living room.

Kento sat up, his movements sending the pile of blankets and pillows tumbling to the carpet. "Hey, what's up man. I think I'll die of boredom if I don't have anything to do around here pretty soon."

Rowen nodded. "Well, that may be true," he replied with a shrug, "Although even if knowing you it's a slight exageration. Kento, if it's any consolation I think I've narrowed down what's causing your bouts of agues and fevers."

"You do?" Kento exclaimed. 

"I should warn you, that given what we've dealt with in the past, I have very strong reason to believe that it may not be a mundane illness."

"What are you saying, bro?" Kento demanded by now starting to get worked up and the flush that spread across his broad features was not entirely due to his fever. Kento had a volatile temper as well.

"You better call the others. I think they'll want to hear this, too."

Kento agreed and when everyone was assembled Rowen announced.

"Well,' Ryuu began. "What have we got?"

"Do you recall just when Kento got sick?"

"When he was out chopping wood," Cye replied, and he saw what he thought was an animal nosing around the house." 

"You described it to me, remember, Kento?" Rowen prompted.

"Yeah, I guess, I thought at the time it might have been a dog or a cat, but it had blue almond shaped eyes and I think it was trying to to pass on a message of some kind."

"It's a kitsune. "I've heard tales of them from my grandparents but I never expected to actually encounter them. They're very rare among Japanese supernatural beings, very territorial, and very insular."

"Rowen's right," Mia chimed in.

"Then what's it doing here?" Ryuu wondered.

"Maybe it's lost," Cye said. "Then again, if you think about it just when did Kento start to coming down with flu-like symptoms? Right after his encounter with the kitsune. There's a direct correlation. It might be ill itself, herself. Are you certain it's a female, Kento?"

"I am," Kento said, snuffling. "I think she likes me."

"Yes, Yes, Sage added. "But that's immaterial, if the kitsune is indeed ill or perhaps unware of that fact that it might be carrying a illness she could be delerious and lost, and fixed on you as a means of helping her."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Sage," Kento griped. He had flopped down full-length on the sofa and was sweating and shivering by turns and his head felt like a boiled potato and the inside of his mouth tasted like he'd been chewing on his sweaty gym socks.

Mia had heated a bowl of water and had been occupied with changing out used compresses for fresh ones. Half an hour ago she had made him drink down a concotion of herbs that she had said was a family recipe for curing colds and fevers. It had tasted horrid going down but it had seemed to help.

"What do we do now?" Ryuu asked. "Is it possible Kento will recover on his own?"

"Maybe, but I'm not entirely certain," Mia answered. "The bug that Kento might simply be happenstance, and I Sage is correct if the kitsune is unwaare that she's carrying something that may not be dangerous to her kind..."

"But it good be bad for humans," Ryuu interjected. "Then we'd best find her before anyone else gets sick."

"Really, guys," Kento griped loudly. "I'm feeling better. And hey, if we do find her, go easy on her. I think she likes me and we should help in any way we can."  
***

 

**'  
Elsewhere the Kitsune whose name loosely translated from the Japanese meant "White Lotus crouched on the roof of the house wondering why she felt unaccountably drawn to this place and this time.

A fragment of a haiku floated up in her memory  
__  
"Neither waking nor sleeping  
I saw the night out,  
and now spend  
alt day in thought, staring at the footsteps in the snow'" 

Her clan like all kitsunes were cloyingly insular and territorial and as one of the youngest among her tribe to have been born in this generation she had been raised to know her duties as a daughter and the societal mores that meant status within the tribe.

However, despite an almost instinctive knowledge of these things, despite all the warnings about having any sort of contact with humans from the mundane world, Yukiko knew that she was breaking a taboo by spending so much time in the mortal realm, but from the moment she had started coming here, tentatively at first, then increasingly on more daring forays until she had found this house and this place.

The young man with the broad wind-burned face and kind eyes. He was a lure and a promise, and while humans might not consider him a beautiful man, kitsunes had other standards for what would be considered beautiful among males and females.

Her musings were cut short when she heard movement at the back of the house and Yukiko froze torn between the knife-edge of flight or flee.

She had spent enough time observing the young man, and his friends; which meant that if anything more could happen between her and her young man, well, it was time that she made the first move.

**  
She landed in the blanket of snow that covered the lawn on all fours and uttered a sharp yip to alert them to her presence.

Cye turned at the sound and sighted along the length of the lawn just as would have sighted and aimed his bow had he been carrying it. As it was, he marked where she stood and summoned the others. "I found her!"

Yukiko stood up with her ears flattened against her head titled back. "I wish to speak to the one you call Kento."

"Sure, sure," Cye said. "Just give us a minute. You understand why have to be a little bit cautious in these matters, right?"

"Oh?"

"It's just that, Kento, is well, shall feeling a bit under the weather and we think it's because of you."

"He's ill?" the kitsune asked. 

"Yeah, and before we go any further I have to know if you're feeling ill as well."

"I am not ill," she replied.

Just then Kento rushed up to join Cye with the others on his heels.

 

"What is the meaning of this? Why is Kento sick?" Yukiko demanded.

"We were hoping that you could answer that question for us, uh, young lady," Ryuu said.

"I don not know what you mean? How could this have happened? Yukiko said and then rocked back and forth on her heels for a moment thinking the matter through with her lumnious blue eyes closed. 

When she opened them she realized that she had indeed inadverently caused Kento to fall in. The warnings of her elders about the consequences of the any the supernatural beings crossing the threshold between the mortal and the magical world came floating up from her memory.

"I am sorry, Kento. 

"For what?" he asked, sniffling and rubbing the bridge of his nose with the sleeve of his jacket.

"ou may find this difficult to believe, but I never intended for this to happen."

"Well, it did," Kento replied, perhaps a bit harsher than he had intended and blushed furiously in embarssment. Often his emotional side got the better of him.  
"So, how do we fix it?"

 

Yukiko took several steps toward Kento and reached up to lay a slim fingered hand on his forehead. 

Kento felt the subtle yet strong flows of energy and the kind and well-intentioned spirit behind them and smiled. He placed his own hands on her shoulders and said ," I believe you when you said that you did mean for me to get sick. Do whatever you have to do."

Whispering words in the ancient tongue of the kitsunes Yukiko reached into the secret webs of Kento's spirit, finding the areas that had been affected and repaired the damage that had been done.

"I love you. I think I've loved from the moment we first met." Please, know that."

"I think I love you, too." And for that moment in time no one else existed for Kento and Yukiko except the two of them. Kento reached and took her in his arms and they stood locked together for a long time.

It was too soon and too sudden when they at last broke apart and the rest of the world came flooding back in.

"I must leave," said Yukiko. "You will be fine."

"Can't you stay?" Kento implored.

"No, but perhaps we will see each other again in another place and time."

"I'll look forward to that," Kento said and meant every word.

"Just promise me one thing," Yukiko said as she turned and began to walk away.

"Name it," Kento replied.

"Remember me," she said and then disappeared into the thick falling snow.

"I will," Kento promised.


End file.
